From the Southern Highlands we head straight over to our next week of golf at Young, another of our regular visits, to play in their annual Cherry Festival Tournament. Young is the Cherry Capital of Australia and every year hosts the National Cherry Festival. Young is situated on the Olympic Highway and is approximately 2 hours drive from the Canberra area. The town is named after Sir John Young, the governor of NSW from 1861 to 1867.

Another successful week with Bob picking up the overall Division 1 (A Grade) winner’s gong and Siobhan winning the 36-hole Visitor’s prize.

Its time to get back to golf. Our next destination is known as the Southern Highlands, a geographical region and district in New South Wales, 110 km south-west of Sydney. The region centred on the commercial towns of Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale, Bundanoon and Robertson. The Highlands geographically sits between 500m and 900m above sea level on the Great Dividing Range. Like other regions along this plateau such as the Blue Mountains to the north and the Australian Alps to the south, the Southern Highlands is known for its cool temperate climate.

This week of golf includes rounds at Moss Vale, Bowral, Mittagong and Mount Broughton. All these courses are a pleasure to play on with rolling green fairways.

Bowral is the home of the Bradman Museum, the International Cricket Hale of Fame, the Bradman Oval and was the home of the best cricketer in the world, Sir Donald Bradman.

Back to the golf and Siobhan had a very successful week snapping up 2 daily prizes at Bowral and Mittagong.

We were quite pleased to be able to find a part of New South Wales that we had not visited before – The Illawarra Region. It is a coastal region situated about 100 Kms  immediately south of Sydney and north of the Shoalhaven or South Coast region. It encompasses the cities of Wollongong, Shellharbour, the town of Kiama and the shire of Wingecarribee.

We stay right on Lake Illawarra just south of Wollongong. The striking Buddhist temple (Fokuangshan Nan Tien Temple) is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere and we also look in on the impressive Kiama Blowhole where the ocean explodes through a small gap in the rocks.

Off to the Sydney Fish Markets, then to Doyle’s Seafood Restaurant at Watsons Bay for lunch, then to South Heads just in time to see Australia’s latest Aircraft Carrier head out to sea.

After Kew we have a week’s break off golf and head down to another regular stop at Lane Cove National Park just north of Sydney for 4 days. The weather is not the best but we still head out for a spot of sightseeing.

The Kew Country Club is one of our favourite weeks of golf during the year. This is our fourth year at the event and we catch up with friends made on previous trips. Kew is approximately 40 Kms south of Port Macquarie and 320 Kms north of Sydney.

We stay at our normal caravan park on the same site number which is only 50 metres walk from the beach.

The golf course was in great condition due to recent rain and the results were good for Bob who won 2 runner up prizes in A Grade.

 

Our next week of golf is around Port Stephens at 3 different golf clubs, Pacific Dunes, Horizons and Nelson Bay.

Around 175 Kms north of Sydney and with an area of approximately 134 square kms (52 sq mi), Port Stephens is larger than Sydney Harbour.  Port Stephens extends approximately 24 km (15 mi) inland from the Tasman Sea and at its widest point, it is 6.5 km (4 mi) across.

We catch up with Tom and Julie at Nelson Bay. As far as the week of golf is concerned Siobhan won the NSW Vets Golf Trophy for a great round at Nelson Bay. Friends, Frances McDonald and Jim Nixon also won prizes during the week.